Decursive raised `attempt to call method 'AddMessage' (a nil value)` on every
login (`Decursive.lua:1393`). It keeps its output window in its own saved table
and guards the reload with `if Dcr_Saved.Dcr_OutputWindow == nil or not ...`
(`:1245`) — which a non-nil *data* table passes.
Our writer walked the frame like any other table: his `Decursive.lua` came back
holding ChatFrame1's own fields (`buttonSide`, `channelList`, `editBox`, …),
twice the size of the real client's file and with no methods on it at all.
The reference tests the value's `T[0]` identity before its fields —
`lua_rawgeti(v, 0)` then `lua_touserdata`, `0x704613`-`0x704628`, reading the
lightuserdata `0x701bd0` wrote — and never walks a widget. A named one writes as
its **bare global name**, a Lua expression, so the reloaded chunk's own lookup
hands the live object back; an anonymous one as `nil --[[ unnamed object ]]`
(`0x872e0c`). His own real-client file is the proof:
["Dcr_OutputWindow"] = ChatFrame1,
Deviation: a name that is no Lua identifier writes as an anonymous object, where
the reference writes it raw and would leave a file that will not parse.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SgstFWtn1RxEJ5kVrpgYwn
gromandClaude Opus 5
15f069667e